zbls hi. good morning and welcome to. >> i am joined today by supervisor aaron peskin who's the vice chair. i'd like to acknowledge our committee clerk, john carol and also the staff at sfgov tv for ensuring that our meetings are available to the public on-line. president breed is not going to be able to attend today's meeting, and so we will take a

motion to excuse. president breed, we have a motion and a second. we can take that without opposition. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor kim: mr. clerk, do we have any announcements? [agenda item read] >> supervisor kim: thank you so much, mr. clerk, can you please call agenda items 1 through 4 together. [agenda items read]

>> supervisor kim: thank you so much, mr. clerk, and i see mr. brian hsu who will be presenting on each of these items. >> good morning, brian chiu with the mayor's office of housing and community development. i come here with our annual request to allow us to accept and expand our hud allocations in these four different funding streams. as you see attached in your packet, we are moving into the fourth year of our five-year funding cycle. we are grateful that we will be able to maintain all of our grantees at the same level to which they were previously entitled this year. as you may recall, even though the president chose to zero out the community development block programs, congress saw fit not only to renew that program but actually to increase it a

little bit more, which means that for us, we have a little more money to provide for our affordable housing and a little bit more money to rehab our community facilities. in the black grant program, we also received a little more money for our home funding. that's the dollars that allow us to build new construction for our affordable housing. our emergency solutions grants program was renewed at about the same amount, and our hopwa program, housing for persons with aids also compensated slightly, which accounts for the slight decrease that we will be receiving that hud imposed on that program. we don't really have any significant program attic change from last year because we're moving into the fourth year of our five-year funding cycle. we ask that you allow us to accept these funds and expend it in the way attached. i'm available for any questions

that you might have on any aspect of that program. >> supervisor kim: no questions at this time, so at this time i'm going to open it up for public comment on items one through four. seeing no public comment, public comment is now closed [ gavel ] wendy paskin-jordan madam chair, i move that we send items 1 through 4 to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> supervisor kim: thank you. and we can do that without opposition. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor kim: mr. clerk. can you please call item number 5. [agenda item read] >> supervisor kim: and maria benjamin is already up at the podium, director of bmr and home ownership.

i also want to acknowledge that cice yen, as well as deputy city attorney sam ray are also here to ask any campbell. severin campbell is also here to make comments after. >> good morning, chair kim and supervisor peskin. item 5 would allow ocb to purchase a condominium that is scheduled for foreclosure sale. it is located at 860 mission street, and the building is called soma grand. the original owner purchase it had in 2008 through the bmr program. he had a first mortgage and since 2015, mocd, the planning

department and the city attorney's office has been in contact with the owner several times to try to bring him in compliance with the program. he owes the h.o.a. over $35,000 in unpaid h.o.a. dues. in 2017, the owner defaulted on his first mortgage, and the lender, which is seline finance has scheduled an auction for the property. mocd is requesting from the board to take the most expeditious course of action which is to bid on the unit at the auction for up to $300,000 which is below the allowable

maximum sales price, according to the rules. if we are successful, we would transfer the ownership to an income eligible household. if we are out bid at auction, the unit will still have affordable housing restrictions, but it is a costly and lengthy process to work with an investor who purchases it to bring it back into compliance. so we're asking you to forward the legislation to the board of supervisors with a recommendation so that we can take the quickest and most efficient route to bring the property back. and as you said, chair kim, my colleagues are here to answer any other questions. >> supervisor kim: so miss benjamin, i know this came up, i think two years ago, when i held a hearing on below market rate, and it was said that at least i had heard for the first

time that we had lost at least one or two home ownership units to market foreclosure to the banks. just to help me jog my memory. what is the protocol when we know one of these units is at risk of foreclosure. it just seems plainly wrong that a bank would get to own one of these units when it was part of a contractual agreement with the city that middle class owners could purchase homes in san francisco. i'm really glad in this case we have caught the unit before it goes to sale. of course it seems wrong that we bid on this. you know, what is the protocol currently, and what can we do to amend this to strengthen our ability to procure these units back? >> the current protocol is we monitor the units, all of our units, and when the first

notice of default is -- it's usually like three months before their lender has or h.o.a. has the right to actually foreclose or go to sale. we contact the homeowner, and we reach out to them. a lot of times, they don't understand that they actually do have equity in the property, and so they -- they're kind of -- if they're in a financial problem, they are just, like, if they're giving up, we let them know what the value of their property is and then that leads to the sale of their home, rather than letting it just go. >> so -- sorry. in that instance, we would purchase the unit back from

them? >> i just want to understand the universe or the scope of this issue. i think it's pretty incredible that we have a pretty sizeable bmr home ownership program today and very few of the owners default. so that i think is pretty extraordinary, well i'd love to get a sense of -- how many b.m.r. units are there? what b.m.r. home ownerships are there, and how many fall under this category where we have to actually work through the bank? >> currently, we have 12 units in this category. they're at different phases of the foreclosure sale. like ma i can't just mentioned, the first phase is called notice of default.

in that phase, we usually reach out to the owner and refer them to mocd sf and for the agency to provide education for the homeowners. the housing counselor will do financial analysis for the household to see if they can initially keep up the payment of the property. of course there are all kinds of programs help out with the homeowners. mocd, internally we have the program called mortgage assistance loan program which is specifically designed to help homeowners who are in default of mortgage payment or at risk of foreclosure. so it depends on the household situation. there are different options available fort household? i would say on a more quarterly basis, we were able to help between three to five households to bring them back

current or help them with different mortgage options. the reason why we have 12 units on this category because we are still actively working with them. they are still also working with their first mortgage lender to do ownership modification. >> how many units have we lot to foreclosure. >> for the inclusionary program because our restriction survives the foreclosure, so we actually -- just in the last two years, we only have one unit that was actually sold under foreclosure, but now we're working on it, and the new owner understands the restrictions and willing to work with the city to sell the unit to the next qualified buyer. >> supervisor kim: okay. okay. >> supervisor peskin: my recollection was we had two -- >> supervisor kim: yeah. >> those two units were not inclusionary units. they were former redevelopment

agency properties, where we don't have the -- the restrictions do not survive foreclosure. >> supervisor peskin: right. and once those were foreclosed on, they became market rate units forever. >> the inclusionary rate unit, we're talking about, which survives the foreclosure. the inclusionary units, we lost that. that's part of -- the affordable restriction does not survive the foreclosure. >> supervisor peskin: and those are the ones we want to stop. >> those are the ones -- since that time, we have not had any. >> supervisor kim: how many units are like this? this is the mission walk. so how many units are like the mission walk? >> our portfolio right now, we have 700 units under sfra, which either the restriction does not survive foreclosure.

the units, we have about 1300 units. >> supervisor kim: 1300 unit total? >> 1300 total, but for the sfra, we have 1300 total. in addition to the two programs, we also have the conversion below market rate program, which is the oldest b.m.r. rate program, which was suspended in 1988, and for that program, we have about 900 units there. >> supervisor kim: but of what we consider the traditional below market rate units, there's about 2,000 below market rate home ownership. >> 1300. >> 1300. >> supervisor kim: and of the 1300, there are 1200 in various

stages of foreclosure shall we are working with. >> that's correct. >> supervisor kim: and do we require notice to mohcd for all of these units? >> correct. for all the units, we have a copy of request of notice for default. so that will automatically notify the lender whenever there is a default, but for the counter conversion b.m.r. unit that i mentioned, those were on the very old program. that time, we did not have the process to have that documenting ready, but mohcd, we have a system, and that system actually sends daily e-mail updates for all our portfolios, so whenever there is anything happen to our unit, we get notification. >> supervisor kim: okay. yeah. thank you very much. i do have to say that 12 out of

1300 units is pretty extraordinary, and at some point, i'd like to have an understanding of what we do to ensure people remain successful in their home ownership. but it is for this item before us. >> thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you, miss yen, and thank you, miss benjamin. why don't we open it up for public comment on this item. seeing no public comment, public comment is now closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor peskin: madam chair, i would move item 5 to the full board with recommendation. >> supervisor kim: great. so we can adopt item 5 without objection, and we can do that without objection. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor kim: mr. clerk, can you please call item number 6. [agenda item read]

>> supervisor kim: thank you. rachel alonso, the transportation financial analyst from the department of public works who's here to present on this item. >> good morning. the proposal allows us to accept a total expend of $926,426 in t.d.a. state grant funds. this is an annual funding source, and the expenditures are similar in nature to previous years' resolutions. the transportation development act of 1971 earmarked one quarter percent of the general

state sales tax for funding. m.t.c. allocates funds annually to the nine bay area counties in accordness with the sales tax collected in each county. public works and the m.t.a. are submitting a joint resolution. improvements could include but are not limited to striping and signing changes, bulb outs, safe hit posts, and bicycle turn lanes. public works proposes to use $232,000 to repair public sidewalks, curbs, gutters and angular returns at various locations citywide. the remaining $232,000 will be used for planning and design of curb ramps at various sites throughout the city. locations will be selected from a list developed by public works and the mayor's office of disability. curb ramps designed with this grant will be constructed in

fiscal year 18-19 with funds from prop k. the m.t.c. does not require local matching funds, and i am joined today by m.t.a. and public works staff. we'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. >> supervisor kim: thank you very much. seeing no questions or comments from committee, at this time we are going to open it up for public comment for item number 6. seeing no comment, public comment is now closed [ gavel ]. >> supervisor peskin: and madam chair, i would make a motion to send this to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> supervisor kim: thank you, and thank you, miss alonso, for presenting. we will move this forward without objection. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor kim: mr. clerk, please read the next item. [agenda item read]

>> supervisor kim: thank you so much. and we have kerrie huang, long-term director of ageing and adult services to present on this item. >> good morning, chair kim and supervisor peskin. we are requesting authorization to enter into contract with brilliant corners for rental subsidy to facilitate independent living for eligible residents within the city and county of san francisco. services include rental unit identification and acquisition, rental subsidy allocation, unit habitability, tenant well-being inspections, and the

modification of housing. just to give a brief background in 2006, the community living fund was established under section 10.100-12 of the san francisco administrative code to fund ageing in place and community placement alternatives for individuals who might otherwise require care in an institution. perthe code requirements, daas provides the board of supervisors two documents: the community living fund six months report twice a year detailing the level of services and costs incurred, and second the annual plan once a year. the goal of the community living fund is to assist those who are at imminent risk for and to prevent institutionization whenever possible. this includes transitioning individuals from skilled nursing facilities like laguna honda hospital which has a dual purpose of allowing people to live independently while

freeing beds up for those who need it. this concludes our report. >> supervisor kim: thank you. and john, thank you also for being here today. i just had a quick question. this is a very low dollar amount, which is great. it's not that i want us to spend more, but i'm just curious, what can you do with $16,000? >> it's 16 million. >> supervisor kim: oh, i'm so sorry. clearly, i just came back to work. this is a large dollar amount, then. could you explain -- it's closer to 17 million, thank you, supervisor peskin. could you explain what this contract costs cover, and i am familiar with brilliant corners and their work, but what services would be provided under this contract? >> sure. it covers everything from the

point for the preparation for moving into the individual up till the time that they leave. so it does a lot of -- they do a lot of work in terms of unit identification and finding appropriate market rate community settings in fair market housing, and it's looking also at accommodations that a person might need. for example, someone might need a roll in shower or an elevator because they need wheelchair access. they do things in -- in preparation for the move, including looking at floors and if there needs to be a rug or not be a rug. if someone has a wheelchair, maybe they need a harder floor. they'll do things like grab bars, and they manage all the logistics of what one might need prior to move in. once someone has moved in, they'll do regular checks more intensively in the beginning to make sure that person is settled in. this might include, you know, making arrangements with the landlord if something is not

working properly. they serve as a liaison between management and the client. thereafter, once things are stable, they'll meet with them every month to do what's called housing retention visits. this requires an individual going out and meeting with the client one-on-one and just kind of doing the -- you know, everything from the -- the habitability of the unit to repairs to any landlord tenant issues. if they need social services, they'll make the recommendation. if someone is ready for termination, they will make those arrangements, as well, and help ease the facility transition. >> supervisor kim: and how many clients will this serve? >> this contract has a capacity to serve probably up to 120, that amount. of course it's a moving target with rent rates going up. this contract currently serves 102 participants.

we had a -- we transitioned a couple of new people out, and then there was about nine people that transitioned in this year. that number is always moving and we're always trying to maintain a pipeline as much as possible so people can be housed. >> so brilliant corners acts as an advocate between a landlord and a tenant, and why is that approximately $140,000 perindividual. it's a 17 million contract, and it serves, you said, roughly 120. >> yeah. i'm the director of contracts for the human services agency. the bulk of the contract is the rents itself. >> supervisor kim: oh, i'm sorry, so this includes the rent. >> yeah. >> supervisor kim: what portion of that is the rents versus the services? >> 16% of it -- i did the math right before. it's about 16% is just administration costs, and the other three -- it's in the budget. the other 80-something percent

is all rent. >> supervisor kim: the other -- i'm sorry? >> so for an approximate cost of about 3 million a year, 2.4 is rent subsidies. >> supervisor kim: 2.4 of the 17. >> it's about 3 million a year, so 2.4 is administration. the way we setup our contracts is we have a set base amount, and then we have a contingency. >> supervisor kim: i understand. i understand. thank you so much for that clarification. just one other question. this is actually separate from this particular contract. several residents in my district are recipients of section 8 and work with brilliant corners and are having so much difficulty finding a landlord that is willing to accept section 8 even as a section 8 holder.

so as a policy matter, what can we do to support our tenants who are even -- you know, that are lucky enough to even get section 8, a rent subsidy and get them into housing. it's been incredibly painful to see in particular some of our s.r.o. tenants who won section 8, lose section 8 because it expires. >> it's a very challenging question, but the focus of community living fund and brilliant corners primarily are keeping people out of institutions, so these are individuals that if they were not assisted, they would be sitting in laguna honda or a skilled nursing facility where it would be thousands of double a month. i think it's double than community living. so the people that have access to these pipeline of units are folks that would otherwise

require institutional care. it's a different population. these are folks that maybe need help with their activities of daily living. >> supervisor kim: so do you have a 100% housing rate with this cohort? >> yes. >> supervisor kim: so my question is separate and apart from this contract. because this contract with brilliant corners is before us, i'm asking what we can do to help these tenants find housing when they get a section 8 voucher and they're working with brilliant corners to obtain it, to obtain the housing. >> so this question's outside the scope of contract. >> i think this is a new contract to us that had been previously held by the department of public health, and we're taking it on. i don't think we're tully aware of what brilliant corners has. >> supervisor kim: got it. thank you very much. all right. so seeing no further questions

from committee members -- actually, is jennifer malvo here from brilliant corners? could you come up, please? hi. thank you. thank you for being here today. >> of course. >> supervisor kim: i was hope that you could answer my question. so completely separate from the contract itself, given the scope of your organization, what are some of the challenges and ideas that brilliant corners has to help some of our tenants who have won section 8 but are not getting housing on our rental market here in san francisco, and what are some things that even legislatively or from an advocacy standpoint can the board of supervisors or city do to help these tenants because i have several residents in the tenderloin who have been fortunate enough to land section 8, and then languish because they're never

able to find housing on the market, and then, their section 8 expires. incredibly frustrating. >> i don't work on that particular program for brilliant corners. i do know what it is, and i can speak to what some of the challenges are. a lot of the challenges are poor credit scores. a lot of the landlords don't want to work with individuals that don't work or don't have high incomes. those are the main challenges that we see at brilliant corners. we're working internally on some of that stuff, but it's a bigger issue. it's not something that we can resolve, like, today or tomorrow, but those are the issues, like, landlords are discriminatory. in our case, in our program, we advocate for the client, so we speak directly with landlords and we build that relationship. unfortunately, i can't speak to the other program that brilliant corners has, but those are definitely some of the challenges that we have as an agency working directly with

landlords. >> supervisor kim: okay. thank you. i'm sorry to put you on the spot, but i just thought that you were here or brilliant corners is here, and this is something that has been dogging our office because tenants win section 8, and then watch them languish because they're not able to get section 8 housing. i'm just wondering if there are ways that we can support these tenants legislatively. >> i can put you in touch with the director of that program, and she can give you more information. >> supervisor kim: okay. thank you very much. so at this time, we're going to open this up to public comment on ice number 7. seeing none, public comment is now closed. [ gavel ] wendy paskin-jordan madam chair, i move that we send this item to the full board with a positive recommendation.

>> supervisor kim: thank you very much. we can do that without objection. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor kim: mr. clerk, will you read the next item, please. [agenda item read] >> supervisor kim: thank you, and we have mickey callahan, director of human resources, presenting on this item. >> thank you very much, madam chair, supervisor peskin. i'll be brief but certainly i'm here to answer any questions. i'm here with community

relations director carol isen, as well. we're here with a number of contracts, particularly the fire mou's. there are many changes. our highlights covers most of them, but there are a lot of updates, but parties came with a lot tot table. as a result we did end up in arbitration. there were a lot of work that people wanted to do, and the results of these arbitrations are the agreements before you with respect to police and fire. additionally, we have a number of mou changes which reflect the agreements that we made with our unions to correspond to ab 119, new employee orientation, and some other minor changes really on the order of howusekeeping to deal with organizational issues and other contracts. i'm very happy to answer questions. maybe that's the best way to

proceed. >> supervisor kim: okay. thank you so much, director callahan. there are actually no questions at this time on these items. >> supervisor peskin: let me just say for the record, we've discussed this plenty in closed session, so it's not as though the members of this panel are just saying yes. we -- i think we have had maybe three, maybe four closed sessions particularly around local 798 and the p.o.a.'s contracts. we're familiar with the balance of these. i want to salute you and the employees relation division for all the work that you've done over these past many months, and thank you for your work with the board of supervisors. >> thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you. so at this time, we will open it up for public comment on items 8 through 20. seeing none, public comment is now closed. >> supervisor peskin: madam chair, i would like to move items 8 through 20 to the full board with a positive

recommendation. >> supervisor kim: and we have a motion to move that forward. without objection, those items pass. mr. clerk, are there any other items before this committee? >> clerk: there is no further business. >> supervisor kim: thank you. we are adjourned. >> it's great to see everyone kind of get together and prove, that you know, building our culture is something that can be reckoned with.

>> i am desi, chair of economic development for soma filipinos. so that -- [ inaudible ] know that soma filipino exists, and it's also our economic platform, so we can start to build filipino businesses so we can start to build the cultural district. >> i studied the bok chase choy her achbl heritage, and i discovered this awesome bok choy. working at i-market is amazing.

you've got all these amazing people coming out here to share one culture. >> when i heard that there was a market with, like, a lot of filipino food, it was like oh, wow, that's the closest thing i've got to home, so, like, i'm going to try everything. >> fried rice, and wings, and three different cliefz sliders. i haven't tried the adobe yet, but just smelling it yet brings back home and a ton of memories. >> the binca is made out of different ingredients, including cheese. but here, we put a twist on it. why not have nutella, rocky road, we have blue berry.

we're not just limiting it to just the classic with salted egg and cheese. >> we try to cook food that you don't normally find from filipino food vendors, like the lichon, for example. it's something that it took years to come up with, to perfect, to get the skin just right, the flavor, and it's one of our most popular dishes, and people love it. this, it's kind of me trying to chase a dream that i had for a long time. when i got tired of the corporate world, i decided that i wanted to give it a try and see if people would actually like our food. i think it's a wonderful opportunity for the filipino culture to shine. everybody keeps saying filipino

food is the next big thing. i think it's already big, and to have all of us here together, it's just -- it just blows my mind sometimes that there's so many of us bringing -- bringing filipino food to the city finally. >> i'm alex, the owner of the lumpia company. the food that i create is basically the filipino-american experience. i wasn't a chef to start with, but i literally love lumpia, but my food is my favorite foods i like to eat, put into my favorite filipino foods, put together. it's not based off of recipes i learned from my mom. maybe i learned the rolling technique from my mom, but the different things that i put in are just the different things that i like, and i like to

think that i have good taste. well, the very first lumpia that i came out with that really build the lumpia -- it wasn't the poerk and shrimp shanghai, but my favorite thing after partying is that bakon cheese burger lumpia. there was a time in our generation where we didn't have our own place, our own feed to eat. before, i used to promote filipino gatherings to share the love. now, i'm taking the most exciting filipino appetizer and

sharing it with other filipinos. >> it can happen in the san francisco mint, it can happen in a park, it can happen in a street park, it can happen in a tech campus. it's basically where we bring the hardware, the culture, the operating system. >> so right now, i'm eating something that brings me back to every filipino party from my childhood. it's really cool to be part of the community and reconnect with the neighborhood. >> one of our largest challenges in creating this cultural district when we compare ourselves to chinatown, japantown or little saigon, there's little communities there that act as place makers. when you enter into little

philippines, you're like where are the businesses, and that's one of the challenges we're trying to solve. >> undercover love wouldn't be possible without the help of the mayor and all of our community partnerships out there. it costs approximately $60,000

for every event. undiscovered is a great tool for the cultural district to bring awareness by bringing the best parts of our culture which is food, music, the arts and being ativism all under one roof, and by seeing it all in this way, what it allows san franciscans to see is the dynamics of the filipino-american culture. i think in san francisco, we've kind of lost track of one of our values that makes san francisco unique with just empathy, love, of being acceptable of different people, the out liers, the crazy ones. we've become so focused onic

maing money that we forgot about those that make our city and community unique. when people come to discover, i want them to rediscover the magic of what diversity and empathy can create. when you're positive and committed to using that energy

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their showing up and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help

san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so where will you shop & dine in the 49 san francisco owes must of the charm to the unique characterization of each corridor has a distinction permanent our neighbors are the economic engine of the city. >> if we could a afford the lot by these we'll not to have the kind of store in the future the kids will eat from some restaurants chinatown has phobia one of the best the most unique neighborhood shopping areas of san francisco. >> chinatown is one of the oldest chinatown in the state we

need to be able allergies the people and that's the reason chinatown is showing more of the people will the traditional thepg. >> north beach is i know one of the last little italian community. >> one of the last neighborhood that hadn't changed a whole lot and san francisco community so strong and the sense of partnership with businesses as well and i just love north beach community old school italian comfort and love that is what italians are all about we need people to come here and shop here so we can keep this going not only us but, of course, everything else in the community i think local businesses the small ones and coffee shops are

unique in their own way that is the characteristic of the neighborhood i peace officer prefer it is local character you have to support them. >> really notice the port this community we really need to kind of really shop locally and support the communityly live in it is more economic for people to survive here. >> i came down to treasure island to look for a we've got a long ways to go. ring i just got married and didn't want something on line i've met artists and local business owners they need money to go out and shop this is important to short them i think

you get better things. >> definitely supporting the local community always good is it interesting to find things i never knew existed or see that that way. >> i think that is really great that san francisco seize the vails of small business and creates the shop & dine in the 49 to support businesses make people all the residents and visitors realize had cool things are made and produced in san >> in 201,755.7 million passengers traveled through san francisco international airport. we have on average 150,000 people traveling through the airport every day. flying can be stressful so we have introduced therapy dogs to make flying more enjoyable.

the wag brigade is a partnership between the airport and the san francisco therapy animal assistant program to bring therapy animals into the airport, into the terminals to make passenger travel more enjoyable. i amgen fer casarian and i work here at san francisco international airport. the idea for therapy dogs got started the day after 9/11. an employee brought his therapy dog to work after 9/11 and he was able to see how his dog was able to relieve passenger's jitter. when we first launched the program back in 2013, our main goal was to destress our passengers however what we quickly found is that our animals were helping us find a way to connect with our pang.

passengers. we find there are a lot of people traveling through the airport who are missing their pets and who are on their road a lot and can't have pets and we have come in contact with a lot of people recently who have lost pet. >> i love the wag brigade. >> one of my favorite parts is walking into the terminals and seeing everybody look up from their device, today everybody is interacting on their cell phone or laptop and we can walk into the terminal with a dog or a pig and people start to interact with each other again and it's on a different level. more of an emotional level. >> i just got off an 11.5 hour

flight and nice to have this distraction in the middle of it. >> we look for wag brigade handlers who are comfortable in stressful situations. >> i like coming to airport it's a lot of fun and the people you talk to are generally people who are missing their dogs. >> they are required to compete a certification process. and they are also required to complete a k9 good citizen test and we look for animals who have experienced working with other orgorganizations such as hospits and pediatric units and we want to be sure that the animals we are bringing into the airport are good with children and also good with some of our senior travelers. i think toby really likes meeting kids. that is his favorite thing. he likes to have them pet him and come up to him and he really

loves the kids. >> our wag brigade animals can be spotted wearing custom vets and they have custom patches. >> there is never a day that repeats itself and there is never and encounter that repeats itself. we get to do maximum good in a small stretch of time and i have met amazing people who have been thrilled to have the interaction. >> the dogs are here seven days a week, we have 20 dogs and they each come for a two hour shift. >> there is a lot of stress when people have traveling so to from these animals around to ease the stress and help people relax a little bit. i think it's great. >> one of our dogs has special

need and that is tristine. he wears a wheel around. >> he has special shoes and a harness and we get it together in the parking lot and then we get on the air train. he loves it. little kids love him because he is a little lower to the ground so easy to reach and he has this big furry head they get to pet and he loves that. >> he doesn't seem to mind at all. probably one of the happiest dogs in the world. >> many people are nervous when they travel but seeing the dogs is just a wonderful relief. >> what i absolutely love most about it is the look on people's faces, so whenever they are stressed and flying is stressful these days you get these wonderful smile. >> i am the mom of lilo the pig

and she is san francisco's first therapy pig. >> lilo joined the wag brigade as our firs first pig. >> wag brigade invited us to join the program here and we have done it about a year-and-a-half ago. our visits last 1.5 to 2 hours and it does take a little bit longer to get out of the terminal because we still get a lot of attention and a lot of people that want to interact with lilo. >> i feel honored to be part of the wag brigade. it's very special to meet so many people and make so many feel happy and people that work here. it's been a great experience for

me and a great experience for to totoby. >> it's been an extremely successful program, so the next time you are here, stop by and say hi.

s>> 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. cut. >> we are here to celebrate the opening of this community garden. a place that used to look a lot darker and today is sun is shining and it's beautiful and it's been

completely redone and been a gathering place for this community. >> i have been waiting for this garden for 3 decades. that is not a joke. i live in an apartment building three floors up and i have potted plants and have dreamt the whole time i have lived there to have some ability to build this dirt. >> let me tell you handout you -- how to build a community garden. you start with a really good idea and add community support from echo media and levis and take management and water and sun and this is what we have. this is great. it's about environment and stewardship. it's also for the -- we implemented several practices

in our successes of the site. that is made up of the pockets like wool but they are made of recycled plastic bottles. i don't know how they do it. >> there is acres and acres of parkland throughout golden gate park, but not necessarily through golden community garden. we have it right in the middle of